On Good Friday this year, I travelled to Columbia, Missouri to participate in a living Stations of the Cross outside the local Planned Parenthood and attend sidewalk counselors’ training shortly thereafter. Except for a 12-year-old boy who was with his mother, I was the only male there. After giving my introduction, the lady running the training thanked me specifically for coming. I have to admit that I was a little uncomfortable with it at first. After all, I’m a guy. I can’t get pregnant and don’t have to experience the pains of childbirth. However, without me asking, she explained why she so appreciated my presence. Many women don’t have a man’s support and are often pressured by men into getting an abortion.
During my freshman year of college, the pro-life club’s president once said that it’s important for men to stand by women. This is why I became frustrated when, every time students went to pray the Rosary outside Planned Parenthood, the girls always outnumbered the guys. In fact, many times, there weren’t many guys present at all. Eventually, I saw the blessing of having fewer men present at these Rosaries: “Planned Parenthood likes to fancy themselves the champions of women’s rights and health, so why should I be upset if more girls are present?”
Am I encouraged to see women praying outside abortion facilities? Absolutely. Planned Parenthood might say that an all-male celibate hierarchy brainwashed these women. I could just as easily say that a mostly female profession brainwashed me into thinking that 2+2=4, George Washington was our first president, and plants need water and sunlight to grow. This, ultimately, is not about health, “rights”, or even different viewpoints. It’s about what is true and what is not true. This is about the order of nature. Follow me on this.
Last year, Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, ordered a new campaign called ”…
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0RXKHg1Wzk]
According to Richards, the campaign addressed the supposed intrusion of men on women’s “rights” to contraception. When pro-life men (especially Catholics) state their case, pro-choicers inevitably respond with things like “Keep your Rosaries off of my ovaries”, “Women should have the right to choose”, and my personal favorite, “If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament.”
The Natural Order
I think that in regards to abortion (and contraception for that matter), men have more of a right to be pro-life than pro-choice. In fact, I’ll be as bold as to say that men have no right to be pro-choice at all. I’ll take it even further and say men have a responsibility to be pro-life. In the order of nature, the man’s responsibility to his family and society is to provide and protect. Men have been the fishers, the hunters, and the farmers. Men have built the cities. Men have patrolled the streets and fought the wars.
Some people say that sex is natural. It is for animals. For humans, sex is a matter of will. A human male and female can choose whether or not to have sex. If, then, he gets her pregnant, but then breaks up with her (whether or not he gives her money for an abortion) or pressures her into getting an abortion, what more was she to him than a sex toy? Why does he, the predator, have more of a say than I, the provider and protector? Why does the predator, who, at best, has an underdeveloped sense of responsibility and maturity have more of a say than the man who wants to offer a woman in such a position an actual choice?
These responsibilities remain the same whether or not the couple is married. This is why I argue that even good, upstanding men who are not sexually active cannot logically be pro-choice. The man has more to lose than the woman if she does not abort. He is the one who has to pay child support and he is the one who goes to jail if he doesn’t pay up. The woman has a whole variety of resources available to her. This is why I say that men, even priests like Fr. John Hollowell, deserve more of a voice than pro-choice men (check out Fr. John’s YouTube channel. He is GREAT!)…
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptzi4ZrkiJE]
Our mothers chose love and sacrifice and gave us life, regardless of the circumstances.
Nature has its order. I did not choose to be a man, yet as a Catholic, as a Knight of Columbus, as a MAN, I accept my natural right and responsibility. I am a man. I have a voice. I have a say. I am pro-life.